CGT Allowance

stu888

Hi,

I presently have no CGT liability for the year 23/24

I have shares (outside an ISA) which if I sold them this year would fall within the £6000 CGT allowance.

However, if I sold them next year then the gain would fall outwith the 24/25 allowance of  £3000

If I sold these shares this year would I be able to buy back the same amount of shares in the same company(s) and if so how long would I have to wait between the sale and the purchase?

It seems to me that if I did go down this route I would only be using my CGT allowance for this year and resetting the "initial cost" for when I come to sell them in the future, however I cannot see that this wouldn't have been thought of before, so there must be some rules around it, though I can't seem to find anything on line that would cover this specific scenario

Thanks

eskbanker

stu888 said:

If I sold these shares this year would I be able to buy back the same amount of shares in the same company(s) and if so how long would I have to wait between the sale and the purchase?

It seems to me that if I did go down this route I would only be using my CGT allowance for this year and resetting the "initial cost" for when I come to sell them in the future, however I cannot see that this wouldn't have been thought of before, so there must be some rules around it, though I can't seem to find anything on line that would cover this specific scenario

Search for the thirty day rule or 'bed & breakfasting', which was indeed introduced specifically to counter the ability to reset acquisition cost in that way, so if you repurchase within thirty days of selling, it doesn't reset the base cost and so would effectively be a waste of time from a CGT perspective.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg13350